The Regarding of Days – Romans 14:6

In the midst of the fourteenth chapter of Romans in verses 5-6 Paul considers the keeping, or regarding, of days.

The keeping, or not keeping, of certain special days is an issue which often crops up in religion. The Jews under the law were commanded to keep the Sabbath day, as well as a number of other days as part of their ceremonial worship of God. The Gentile believers at Rome, however, had never been under the law as an outward covenant as the Jewish nation had. Therefore what was customary and natural to some, was an unusual and foreign practice to others. Some at Rome, therefore, were strongly persuaded that they should continue to keep the Sabbath day, or other days, as they had once done. Others saw no need for it. Some felt the practice of setting aside one day in seven in order to devote themselves to God’s worship was important. Others felt that they should treat all days alike.

Opinions on the matter were very strong, and they continue to be so up to this very day. Many are fully persuaded of one thing, and others are fully persuaded against. Some, for example, particularly remember the Lord’s birth and His death on certain days each year. Others feel that such a practice is not commanded in scripture and is influenced by mere worldly tradition. Arguments for and against can be very strong.

It is this which Paul addresses in these verses, by stressing that whether one keeps a day, or doesn’t keep it, he should do so, as ‘unto the Lord’. Under the New Covenant believers are not under a law to keep a Sabbath day, or any other particular day of remembrance (such as Easter). However, that does not in itself make the keeping of such days wrong. Paul seeks to emphasise that the keeping of, or not keeping of, such days is not wrong in itself and should not be a cause for division. He stresses the need to avoid “doubtful disputation” (Romans 14:1) over such matters. What matters is how one approaches the day. Whether kept, or not, all should be as unto the Lord.

Someone once asked me the following question about the Sabbath day:

“You mentioned that Sabbath keeping is not specifically mentioned in the New Testament whereas nine of the other commandments are quoted. Is there any implication to this? It seems to me that it is omitted because the Sabbath (or day of rest) was mainly instituted at the Creation, i.e. God was 6 days working and on the 7th He rested? What would your practical views be on the Sabbath now, for example would you be happy to do your groceries shopping on the Sunday? If not, then why not?”

Let us consider this particular question of the Sabbath day, especially in the light of what Paul teaches in Romans 14. Firstly, it is very significant that the Sabbath command is not repeated in the New Testament. This is because it was essentially a type, a shadow, pointing to the rest which the believer has in Christ. Before coming to Christ the believer is, spiritually speaking, under the law, labouring. But when brought to faith his ‘six days’ of work come to an end and he enters into rest, having been crucified with Christ and risen with Him the other side of death. Then he is in rest, having the reality of what the Sabbath was but a shadow. Hence in the New Testament with the coming of Christ, and His work being finished at the cross, the Sabbath comes to an end. Therefore we read in Matthew 28:1 “In the end of the sabbath”, regarding the resurrection of our Lord. This is not simply referring to the end of that particular Sabbath day, you see, but this refers to the end of the Sabbath, full stop.

Regarding the mention of the Sabbath at creation, it is true that Genesis 2 mentions the seventh day, and of course Exodus 20 refers back to this in relation to the Sabbath law. However, it is significant that no where else in Genesis is the Sabbath mentioned. There is no mention of it being made a law or requirement of man to keep until Moses brought Israel out of Egypt. We never read of the Patriarchs observing a Sabbath in that sense. Certainly at the creation the ‘type’ of the seventh day is mentioned, because it would be – the account is of God’s creation and is figurative of what He brings in in the new creation in which there is an eternal rest. The law of Moses certainly refers back to this because again the Sabbath law is a figure of that which is to come so it refers back to the previous figure (and it is made a law to teach us that to ‘break’ such a rest by working in it is wrong, because this is tantamount to adding our works to Christ’s in order to be saved – but we are to rest entirely in Him). However the fact remains that no mention is made elsewhere in Genesis of Sabbath observance, and the strict requirements of how to observe the Sabbath are only stated in the law.

When we arrive at the New Testament we have various references to the Sabbath in the Gospels and Acts, but many of these references are to what Christ did on the Sabbath to the consternation of the Jews who accused him of being a Sabbath breaker. In the epistles the primary mention is in Colossians (2:16) which is highly significant as there the teaching concerns deliverance from earthly things, into which men seek to bring us into bondage. Paul seeks to set the Colossians’ gaze upon heavenly things showing them that these earthly types and figures have all passed away in Christ.

So, in summary, in the New Testament we are delivered from the law, including the Sabbath law. The mention of the seventh day rest at creation doesn’t alter that, because the position of the believer is one of being dead to this present world, this present creation, and alive in Christ risen in newness of life the other side of death. What pertains to this creation is but a type and figure of the reality brought in in the new creation. The seventh day rest pictures that eternal rest we have in Christ. In Galatians 6:14 Pauls tells us that the world is crucified unto him, and he unto the world. If so, he is crucified unto all worldly, earthly things, including the observation of holy days, sabbaths and so on. We are not under a legal bondage in respect of such things (We are both dead to the law and also to the world.) As believers we need to be mindful of our position in Christ the other side of death, as we are no longer earthly in the first man Adam, but heavenly in the Second Man Christ. We are called to mortify the deeds of the flesh, and if so, we reckon ourselves dead to the flesh, dead to this world, hence dead to what is earthly. Types, figures and shadows served their purpose in the Old Testament but now the reality has come, now the true Light has dawned, we put such things away and walk in liberty in Christ our Saviour.

But how does all that work out in practice? Obviously despite our state in Christ we do still have the flesh, we are still in this world (though not of it) and we do have weeks with days and nights…. And for that reason, whilst we are not under any legal obligation to keep a sabbath day, being dead to the law, nevertheless the principle of one day of rest in seven, whilst in this world, is a good one – physically and spiritually, in this world, in many ways, we need it. Also, it is good to worship our Lord as often as we can, and having one day a week set aside specifically for that purpose, without the distraction of our daily work is helpful. So the historical situation in this country for example (Great Britain) which means that many have Sunday off work is something to be thankful for, and we can be happy, voluntarily, to set such a day aside for the worship of God, it being the first day of the week which is the day that Christ rose from the dead (and as such not the Sabbath day itself anyway, but nevertheless still one day in seven, and a continual reminder of our Lord’s resurrection, and of course a day on which the disciples in the New Testament became accustomed to meeting on as a result – see John 20:19 and Acts 20:7).

Being able to avoid many of the everyday demands of life -such as shopping and work – on such a day is helpful as they prevent or distract from the worship of God. As Paul says in Romans 14:6, “He that regardeth the day, regardeth it unto the Lord”. We have no legal obligation to keep one day in seven, and we should not be judgmental of others who see their liberty in Christ differently or indeed of those who lack the same freedom owing, for example, to commitments with work. But whether we esteem one day above another, or not, whether we observe one day a week differently, or one day annually, or not, we should do all as unto the Lord, all by faith, all for His glory. And all freely, willingly, out of love for Christ our Saviour.

There are some who recognise that the believer is no longer under the Sabbath law who therefore treat Sunday much like any other day (except perhaps for attending a meeting or two on that day). Well, they have the liberty to do that, but why surround the worship of God with the distractions and busyness of everyday life if we have the freedom to do otherwise? Others would rather seek to raise every day up to the same standard, rather than bringing this one day down to the standard of others (in terms of being taken up with the distractions of earthly cares and duties). But as we can’t bring all the other days ‘up’, because of the need to work, shop, and so on, and although we might love to have two, three or more days a week like this one, we can nevertheless be thankful for that day, and that time, with which we have the freedom and liberty to set it aside entirely for the worship of God, not only in private, but publicly. It is good to at least be able to treat one day differently – to give our time in it freely to the Lord, if you like (to be mindful of heavenly things, putting aside earthly cares). We have no ‘Sabbath’, and such a day isn’t legally binding, but it is still nevertheless good to be able to devote such time freely out of love for the Lord. With a day of rest we can be reminded of that eternal rest which we have in Christ who has delivered us from bondage and brought us into liberty, as children of light who walk in the light of His countenance in the power of an everlasting life in Him, who having died for our sins rose again as the Firstborn from the dead, in whom we have our life and being.

But whether we keep a day, or don’t keep a day, may it never be the cause of dispute. May we live by faith, each and every day, doing all as unto the Lord, and may we gather often with our brethren, whether on the first day of the week, the second, or any other, to hear the preaching of Christ in the Gospel of God and to worship His Name for His glory. May we walk as children of the day, children of light, who walk in the light of God’s glory in that ‘day’ of Christ’s ascended glory, that Lord’s Day, in which Christ, the Sun of Righteousness, shines forth His glory through the proclamation of His Gospel from on High.

As Paul writes:

“Him that is weak in the faith receive ye, but not to doubtful disputations.

For one believeth that he may eat all things: another, who is weak, eateth herbs. Let not him that eateth despise him that eateth not; and let not him which eateth not judge him that eateth: for God hath received him.

Who art thou that judgest another man’s servant? to his own master he standeth or falleth. Yea, he shall be holden up: for God is able to make him stand.

One man esteemeth one day above another: another esteemeth every day alike. Let every man be fully persuaded in his own mind. He that regardeth the day, regardeth it unto the Lord; and he that regardeth not the day, to the Lord he doth not regard it. He that eateth, eateth to the Lord, for he giveth God thanks; and he that eateth not, to the Lord he eateth not, and giveth God thanks.

For none of us liveth to himself, and no man dieth to himself. For whether we live, we live unto the Lord; and whether we die, we die unto the Lord: whether we live therefore, or die, we are the Lord’s.

For to this end Christ both died, and rose, and revived, that he might be Lord both of the dead and living.” Romans 14:1-9

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Revelation mentions that those who come out of tribulation are they that keep the commandments and love the Lord…Jesus also said if you love Him you’ll keep his commandments….Please indicate where God renaged on the 4th commandment. Fact is, even in death Jesus observed teh true Sabbath. I attended Catholic, Apostolic, Rhema, Anglican and many evangelical churches for years and have yet to receive discomfort/proof that the Sabbath is indeed Saturday. If you prefer Sunday, dont use the Bible to justify it. Be careful to change to Bible as John warned in Revelation.

Please demonstrate on your website if Jesus had a change of heart on this issue. Besides…what would it hurt to keep ALL of God’s commandments anyway.

I dont judge you but you need to be careful when discounting the law of God.

Thanks for the comments Jason. I would encourage you to read the above article again, along with the article ‘Delivered From The Law – Romans 7’, also on this site.

These two articles should suffice to demonstrate that:

1. I have not stated, and scripture does not state, that the Sabbath has ‘changed’ from Saturday to Sunday. The article above states no such thing. It states that believers are delivered from the law, and have no sabbath law. They, in common practice, meet for worship on the first day of the week, as did the early disciples, because of Christ’s resurrection on the first day. But that isn’t the sabbath.

2. The law has not been ‘abrogated’ and I have not, and scripture does not, state that Jesus had a change of heart. What scripture does, however, teach, most emphatically, is that God has laid the penalty of the law, as due to the believer, upon His Son, who died under it. In so doing He lawfully delivered the believer from under the law, who now, in the sight of the law is a dead man. It has no more rule over him. The law hasn’t changed, but the believer’s position to it has. He is delivered. See Romans 7.

AND IF YOU SIN, HOW DO YOU KNOW THAT YOU HAVE SINNED? THE LAW TELLS YOU RIGHT?

SO IF THE LAW IS TO GUIDE YOU, ARE YOU SUPPOSE TO OBSERVE IT OR IS IT JUST A MERE ABSTRACT SET OF ‘RULES’ THAT YOU KNOW BUT DO NOT FOLLOW?

YOUR THEORY AND ARGUMENT THAT THE LAW IS “THERE” BUT WE ARE NOT TO OBSERVE IT IS AKIN TO A DOG RUNNING AROUND TRYING TO BITE IT’S TAIL. IT JUST GOES AROUND IN CIRCLES.

HOWEVER IT IS GOOD TO KNOW THAT SOME PEOPLE STILL TRY TO USE COLOURFUL WORDS TO THEORIZE, EXPLAIN AND CONJURE UP EXCUSES FOR THE LORD’S WORD. ONLY ONE DID THAT IN EDEN AND WE ALL KNOW WHERE HE WILL END UP.

I believe what God requires of us is ‘simple childlike obedience” to his word. This was, is and always be the central issue to our lives. This was how Adam and Eve sinned in Eden; for simply not obeying what God had commanded.

I have never read anywhere in the bible where God, nor Jesus Christ, nor the early Christians not observing the Sabbath.

All arguments for not observing the Lord’s Sabbath that I have read are all interpretations and justifications of men. I believe if God knew that Christ would come to do away with HIS “commandments” and especially HIS Sabbath, HE would have specifically told us so and would not leave us doubting and arguing about it. Dont you think?

IT IS AS SIMPLE AS SAYING, “YES FATHER I LOVE YOU, I BELIEVE YOUR WORDS. I WILL DO AS YOU COMMAND.”

In 1 Timothy 1:5-7 Paul instructs Timothy that “the end of the commandment is charity [love] out of a pure heart, and of a good conscience, and of faith unfeigned: from which some having swerved have turned aside unto vain jangling; desiring to be teachers of the law; understanding neither what they say, nor whereof they affirm.”

But why does Paul write that? For the simple reason that those who would teach believers to turn from the gospel back to the law are those who ‘turn aside unto vain jangling’. They desire to teach the law, but they don’t understand what they are saying! For the law only brings in death, whereas the gospel, and the gospel alone, brings life. To turn back from that which brings life unto that which only ever brought in death is foolishness indeed. Yet, there are many who turn from the commandment of God, to believe and rest in Christ, back to the old yoke of the law from which Christ delivered us… and in so doing they bring condemnation back upon their heads.

You clearly believe that God calls us to obedience… and you are quite right, He does. But the New Testament calls us to obedience to Christ and His gospel, not to obedience to the letter of the law from which the gospel delivered us. That is not to say that the gospel brings disobedience to the law, but simply that the law is only ever fulfilled by obedience in the gospel, by following Christ, not by following the law.

This is made plain in very many passages in the New Testament, and it takes no ‘theorising’ to render their plain meaning. Paul teaches plainly in Romans 7 that we are “become dead to the law by the body of Christ… that we should bring forth fruit unto God”. There is no other way to bring forth fruit unto God. The law can’t do that, for the law “did work in our members to bring forth fruit unto death”. Paul reaffirms this truth in Galatians 2:19 where he writes “I through the law am dead to the law, that I might live unto God”. Now, is that not plain language? Where is the ‘theorising’ here? We are dead to the law that we might live unto God. That means what it says, surely?

Yes, God calls us to obedience, but it is obedience to the gospel. If God has delivered us from the law in Christ, which He has, then He clearly is not instructing us to return to the commandments of the law, for if we did, we would be found to be adulterers, for we would be turning from our new husband, Christ, back to our former husband, as plainly set forth in Romans 7. God firmly instructs us in Galatians 5:1 to “stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free, and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage”. How can we be obedient to God’s instruction here if we seek to return to the law, the yoke of bondage?

You have made an allusion to the garden of Eden in your second comment. Very well, but it would do us good to understand just what occurred in the garden of Eden, and the spiritual realities of what was set forth there.

When Adam disobeyed God and ate the fruit of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil he sinned and he died. Death was the result. God had instructed him that he was free to eat of all of the trees in the garden, even the Tree of Life, but not to eat of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. There were two trees named, you see, both with great symbolic meaning, but it is the latter of which Adam ate.

Later, God gave unto Israel the law to show them that they were sinners and were dead, and were in need of life – life which could only come through the sacrifice of the Redeemer who was yet to come. God gave the law to remind them of their state by nature as a consequence of the fall of Adam in the garden. He was reminding them of the tree from which they once ate, and of the consequences of eating the fruit of that tree. When Adam ate of that tree he died. It was no tree of life, despite the knowledge of good and evil which it brought. Likewise, the law, though it brings a knowledge of good and evil, only condemns. When we seek to keep it, we fail miserably, and it condemns us. It kills, it exposes our sin. And that is the law’s purpose. “For by the law is the knowledge of sin” Romans 3:20. The law does not bring life, nor was it given to instruct those who have life in how they should live. No, the law brings the knowledge of sin. It condemns. It kills. And that is why God gave it.

If Adam had eaten of the Tree of Life, however, he would have had eternal life. But instead he ate of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, and as a consequence he brought sin and death upon all his posterity. So, God gave the law, and applies the judgment of the law to us, in order to teach us this fact in our own experience. To teach us, that like Adam, we too are sinners. To show us that fact, not as a mere statement upon paper, but as a bitter reality within our own soul’s experience. That the knowledge of good and evil will never bring life, never give the ability to walk uprightly in accordance, and never bring us to heaven, or into God’s glory. The law exposes us as sinners, and shuts us up as condemned, unto the only hope we can have, which is in Christ and Him alone. We must be delivered from the law by Christ, that we might be married to Him to bring forth fruit unto God. See Romans 7.

When God uses the law in this way, He doesn’t send us back to it to instruct us in our walk as believers. Its work is done. Its purpose is fulfilled. It is a “schoolmaster unto Christ”. But when faith is come “we are no longer under a schoolmaster” Galatians 3:25. For Christ is “the end of the law for righteousness to every one that believeth”. Then how can we return to that old schoolmaster, that old husband, that old tree, that which brought in only sin, death and rebellion? How can we?

So it is true, and you are right, that we are called to child-like obedience unto God… but not to the law from which we have been delivered, but to Christ in His gospel. We are not under the old covenant, but in the new. This is plainly set before us in Hebrews 8, where we read “In that he saith, a new covenant, he hath made the first old. Now that which decayeth and waxeth old is ready to vanish away”. But was not that old covenant of God? Yes it was. Was it not commanded of God? Yes it was. Then are we not to obey those commands of God? Well, clearly there has been a change, for that old covenant has ‘waxed old’. We have been delivered from it. Is not that plain from the scriptures? Surely it is impossible to maintain with any degree of truthfulness, in the light of all that is taught in the New Testament, that the Old Covenant remains in force upon believers? If we claim that we are placing ourselves in direct disobedience to the commands of God in the New Testament. So which are we going to follow? What God said of old to His particular nation of Israel, or what God has commanded in the gospel, in the New Covenant, to all His own in Christ? If God, today, says that we have been delivered from the law and are now married to Christ, are we to make Him a liar and return to our old husband, to that from which we have been delivered?

But it would appear, that you are of the persuasion that believers are still bound to the commands of the Old Covenant. If that be the case, may I ask you a few simple questions in the light of some very plain passages of scripture?

1. Firstly, how, if we are “become dead to the law by the body of Christ, that [we] should be married to another, even to him who is raised from the dead, that we should bring forth fruit unto God” (Romans 7:4), can we then return to our former husband – the law? Are we not then found to be adulterers, turning from our husband Christ, to another? And how can we then bring forth fruit unto God, if we needed to become dead to the law in order to do that?

2. If Christ is “the end of the law for righteousness to every one that believeth” (Romans 10) then how can we return to that law for righteousness, when Christ is the end of it?

3. How if “I through the law am dead to the law, that I might live unto God”, can I now be alive again unto the law? Surely I would then cease to live unto God, if the purpose of my dying to the law is that I might live unto God. Does not ‘dead’ mean dead? Either I am dead to the law or alive to the law, and does not Paul teach plainly that I am dead to it, that I might live unto God?

4. How can I obey God’s instruction to “stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free, and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage” (Galatians 5:1) if I seek to return to the law and attempt to obey the commands of that law which Paul calls the yoke of bondage?

5. If we are still to walk by the law are we then bound to keep all of its commands? Including all the dietary commands, the commands concerning strange marriages, tithes, clean and unclean beasts, and all the instruction regarding the priesthood and the offerings? Were not all these things commanded of God, and if so are we to be obedient to them? If we are to keep the law are we not to keep all the law, as James teaches “For whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in one point, he is guilty of all.”? Surely there is but one way, and one way only, to keep ALL of the law and that is in Christ and Him alone.

6. If the scriptures teach that the believer in Christ remains bound to the law, then where does it also teach that the same law has been amended, to change the seventh day into the first? If the first day be now the Sabbath, where is but one passage which refers to it as such?

7. If the believer remains bound to the law of the Sabbath, why then does Paul find fault with the Colossians in their being bound to the Sabbath? (Colossians 2:16) Is it not because they looked to a physical day, rather than to its fulfilment in Christ, who is Himself our Sabbath?

In closing may I just ask whether you have read the other articles on http://www.thegospelofgod.wordpress.com ? Clearly the article on chapter 14 stands in the context of the whole book and it should be read as such. I’d especially draw your attention to some of the earlier chapters, including the exposition of chapter 7 of Romans, which considers the plain teaching of God regarding the place of the law in respect of the gospel.